


By My Hand

by dovingbird



Category: Rhett & Link
Genre: Collars, Established Relationship, Leashes, Light Dom/sub, M/M, Service Submission
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-14
Updated: 2016-12-14
Packaged: 2018-09-08 11:49:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,990
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8843587
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dovingbird/pseuds/dovingbird
Summary: A filled commission. After a rough day at work, Rhett's feeling all wound up and needs Link's soft voice and gentle hands to help coax him back down.





	

Rhett is already trembling whenever Link moves in next to him at the front door. “Hey, hey,” Link murmurs. He reaches up and absently wraps his hand around the back of Rhett’s neck, giving a soft squeeze and feeling the tight muscles knotted under his fingers. “It’s all right, man, we’re here.”  
  
“Yeah.” Rhett leans into Link gently, just enough that their hips are touching, while Link works at getting their apartment unlocked. “Not, I’m not bad, I just-”  
  
“I know,” Link says. “Don’t worry. I’m gonna take care of you.”  
  
The trembling shifts into a single shiver, pleasant against Link’s side, before Link opens the door and lets Rhett precede him. They’ve played this game for a while now, over thirty years, and it’s easy for Link to lean against the doorframe and study Rhett’s movements. Rhett removes his shoes, toeing them off, then leans over and places them side by side next to the door. He fidgets with his fingers, plucking at the hem of his shirt. His hands are so active tonight, so loud, but Link wouldn’t dream of quieting them.  
  
Link shuts the door behind him and watches how tentatively Rhett looks at him. While Link goes through the same process of removing his shoes and placing them neatly out of the walkway, Rhett fidgets more, starting to shift his weight. It’s dangerous for a mountain man like Rhett to do that. What if he comes tumbling down?  
  
He doesn’t look quite at the point of an avalanche yet, though, and if Link plays his cards right he can stave it off before it even comes close.  
  
“Good,” Link murmurs as he reaches up to cup Rhett’s cheek, and he feels Rhett smile slightly through the beard. “Nice and tidy.”  
  
“Just like you like,” Rhett prompts. His voice curves up right at the end, a soft question.  
  
“Yeah, sweetheart, just like I like,” Link repeats, answering the unspoken question, and Rhett’s shoulders relax a little more. “You know what you want tonight?”  
  
“I-I...” Rhett opens and closes his mouth a few times and Link can see the lingering anxiety behind it, can see Rhett’s skin start to flush.  
  
“Shh.” Link touches two fingers to Rhett’s mouth and feels Rhett’s breath shake against his touch. “Do you wanna speak?”  
  
Rhett closes his eyes, adam’s apple bobbing in a gulp, but he shakes his head.  
  
“All right, that’s okay. Touch? You okay to be touched right now?”  
  
Rhett nods quickly, so quickly that Link chuckles.  
  
“Okay.” Link comes up on his tiptoes and touches his mouth to Rhett’s in a soft, chaste kiss. “If you know what you want, can you go get it and bring it to me?”  
  
Rhett nods again before he makes his way down the hall. Link prefers to be responded to verbally when they’re leaning into scene territory, of course, so there’s no misunderstanding, so there’s clear consent, but he understands when this happens. Rhett gets stuck in his own head sometimes, and Link’s been there, and he knows it’s hard as hell to get out. And when that happens, the last thing wants is for Link to be dragged into someone else’s comfort zone. He wants to be met inside of his own. So he’ll do that for Rhett. He’ll do whatever he needs.  
  
When Rhett comes back, his huge hands are so delicately gripping two things: Rhett’s soft brown leather collar and the long, slim leash that matches it. He flicks his tongue over his lips, eyes on the ground, and offers them to Link.  
  
“Rhett,” Link murmurs. “Can you look at me?”  
  
Rhett meets his eyes quickly, brows knit up, like he expects to be punished.  
  
Link gives him a soft smile as he cups Rhett’s forearms, letting Rhett’s rest on top of his. “Just wanted to see your handsome face, sweetheart.” The words immediately have the effect that Link wants. Rhett flushes even more, mouth spreading in a bright smile as Link takes the collar out of Rhett’s hands. “Can you get on your knees for me?”  
  
Rhett nods, still being as quickly responsive as he can be, and eases down onto his knees so that Link can wrap the collar around his neck. He knows the exact hole that Rhett likes it buckled in at, knows the exact tightness he wants, and as he fastens it around Rhett’s neck he hears Rhett’s breath catch.  
  
“That all right?” Link asks, and Rhett nods. “Good. Good boy.”  
  
Rhett’s eyelashes flutter.  
  
Link takes the leash next. He weaves it through his hand slowly, wrapping it around each of his fingers, and the soft leather draws Rhett’s eye again as if Link is casting a spell in front of him, and only when Link knows he has Rhett’s utter, most rapt attention does he attach the leash to the collar. There’s a soft clipping noise when he does, and it acts like Pavlov’s bell, immediately drawing Rhett’s eyes to Link’s.  
  
Link lifts an eyebrow. “Can you talk now?”  
  
Rhett opens his mouth, winces, then closes it again.  
  
“It’s all right if you can’t,” Link murmurs, quick to soothe. “If you need a break, I want you to come and squeeze both of my wrists, and if you can’t reach them, I want you to give the leash two tugs. All right?”  
  
Rhett nods. The tension is already easing out of him and the relief painted on his face is palpable. Link wants to wrap his arms around Rhett, wants to ease him into bed, wants to pet through the soft hair on his chest until he feels Rhett fall asleep against him, but there’s time yet for that. First Link needs to bring Rhett down.  
  
“C’mon,” Link says, walking toward the bedroom, Rhett’s leash in hand, and he feels Rhett let the leash go taut before he follows. Rhett likes the tug of the collar, Link knows, likes feeling whoever’s leading him really _wants_ him to come along at first, but then Rhett’s footsteps are behind him, a little heavier than Link’s like he doesn’t have full control of his body right now, like he’s too focused on Link to be gentle and delicate. It suits Link just fine. Link opens the bedroom door and comes to a stop in front of the bed.  
  
There’s an immediate change in Rhett. The second that Rhett lays eyes on the bed he tenses again, eyes going a little shifty, fingers starting to fidget, and Link reads him immediately. No sex. Not right now. Not like this. Link turns toward Rhett. “I’d like to get my pajamas on,” Link says, and Rhett immediately moves toward him. His fingers shake on Link’s shirt buttons and Link clicks his tongue to get his attention. “I’m not gonna sleep with you right now, all right, sweetheart?”  
  
Rhett’s eyelashes flutter again in relief. His hands go soft and warm on Link’s chest, a silent expression of gratitude, before they go back to work.  
  
“Yeah,” Link murmurs as Rhett eases the shirt off of Link’s shoulders and folds it delicately. “Good boy. That’s good, sweetheart.”  
  
Rhett makes a soft noise in the back of his throat, maybe an aborted word that he didn’t mean to say, but his lips curve into a smile anyway as he reaches for Link’s belt. It’s a steady process, easy as pie, for Rhett to strip Link down to his boxers, all of his clothes folded neatly on the bed, and then Rhett hovers near the chest of drawers and stares into it.  
  
“Pick out your favorite for me, sweetheart,” Link prompts.  
  
Rhett rubs his beard, eyes narrowed in thought, before he plucks a soft, worn pair of plaid pants and a white undershirt. He looks at Link in question, gets a nod in reward, and closes the drawers before he sets to carefully dressing Link. Rhett is observant and sure, smoothing out every wrinkle in the fabric, making sure the pants sit just so on Link’s waist before he ties a bow with the drawstring. He removes Link’s glasses to slide the shirt on, then places them back on, lips curved in concentration.  
  
“Perfect,” Link says. He tugs Rhett down by the leash and Rhett makes another low sound of pleasure just before Link kisses him.  
  
When Link guides Rhett to the bed Rhett doesn’t fight him or tense up. They trust each other. They wouldn’t lie to each other, not here, not like this. Link sits on his knees and coaxes Rhett onto the sheets with him.  
  
Rhett meets his eyes, waiting silently and attentively for the next command, and Link takes Rhett’s hand. “I love your hands,” Link murmurs. He turns his back to Rhett, giving a little slack to the leash. “I’d like it if you’d rub my shoulders.”  
  
Rhett seizes the task immediately. His hands are warm and strong. They’re something that Link fixated on even back in high school, seeing how easily Rhett handled a basketball, how powerful he was with it in his grip. Now Rhett’s hands are softer instead of calloused, more wrinkled instead of taut, but they press into Link’s muscles and Link doesn’t hesitate to groan in appreciation. He didn’t realize what tension he held either. He focuses on Rhett so much, wants to build him up, wants to make him feel strong and warm and loved, that sometimes he forgets himself.  
  
Rhett notices the knots, though, and works at them hard and single-mindedly just like Link likes. The pain is almost blistering in his muscles, but it’s sweet and sharp too, like tasting a raspberry fresh off the bush back home and having its sweetness creep up on him. It’s almost dizzying. Link leans back against Rhett, feels how Rhett catches him with his strong chest, and Link murmurs a soft praise just to hear Rhett hum in response.  
  
They go like that for a while, Link’s eyes shut as Rhett works the ache out of him, Rhett focused and intent, and time slips away from Link. How can he focus on it when he’s got Rhett here with him? Rhett who trusts him, who burns for him, who _loves_ him, and who Link feels all of that for in return? It’s only when Rhett’s voice, rough from disuse, rises that Link focuses again. “That good?” Rhett asks.  
  
Link opens his eyes and meets Rhett’s gaze. He grins at him from ear to ear. “Yeah, that’s good. It’s perfect.” Rhett smiles back just before Link tugs him for a kiss. “How’re you feeling, sweetheart?”  
  
Rhett clears his throat and swallows. “Better,” he murmurs. “I, uh. I think I might be all right now.”  
  
“Okay.” Link wraps the leash around his hand. “You tapping out?”  
  
Rhett considers it. He looks at the bed. “I, uh...I’m sorry, sir, I-I think I’m just, I’m real worn out.”  
  
“Hey, shh.” Link cuts off any anxiety at the pass with another series of soft kisses. He feels how Rhett sinks against him a little desperately and Link turns around to press their chests together, to ply him with sweet kisses until Rhett is loose and shivery when Link pulls back. “Sleep sounds amazing. You got me all worn out with them hands of yours.”  
  
Rhett chuckles as Link removes the leash, then removes the collar. “My one talent,” Rhett says dryly and Link reaches over to flick him in the thigh in reproach and make Rhett laugh again.  
  
Rhett works on getting his clothes off, stripping down to the nude just like he always likes to sleep, while Link puts up the leash and collar, and by the time Link crawls into bed beside him, Rhett’s arms are wide open to welcome him in.  
  
Link presses a soft kiss to the curve of Rhett’s jaw. “Love you, bo.”  
  
“Love you too,” Rhett whispers. He kisses Link’s forehead. “Thank you for taking care of me.”  
  
“Always,” Link whispers back.


End file.
